Tuna Poke Recipe

"For all you fresh Pacific Albacore tuna lovers... Tuna Poke (say 'Pokay') fresh Pacific Albacore tuna loin(s) cut into 1 inch cubes Roasted peanut oil (you can get this at Freddies)...makes it so buttery! Ginger Black (and/or white) sesame seeds Soy sauce to taste could add some garlic and/or try a few drops of roasted sesame oil mix sauce ingredients together and mix with tuna cubes to lightly dress tuna. Chill and serve!!"

Wild weather

wow, yesterday was awful at the Market, or the attempt at Sunday Market.
Ultimately, it cancelled, but not before everyone was soaked and some people had some serious damages to their canopies and goods.
The little boys start school in earnest on Wednesday.
It is muddy outside on the track that is my "yard" but everyone is heading out to do some track maintenance anyway.
Since Christmas is only a few months away, I am thinking on the things that I would like to give as gifts, and thinking also that with a Wal-Mart coming, how I will do even more to stay out of such institutions (I will not EVER go inside that store) and buy instead from people that live here and work here like me.
I would hope the rest of you that care about our corner of the state would do the same.
There is nothing good, nothing we need inside a Wal-Mart. Give them their walking papers.

Hope you all enjoy the good weather promised to return this week, and have a safe back to school week!

Stars and stripes

Just about this time of year I get a craving for Americana: Red, white and blue, sparklers and lemonade. Strawberry pies and front porch swingin'. Long Summer evenings while the smell of newly-mown grass lingers and the barn swallows sing goodnight to the bugs they left alive (for now).
I like to decorate my spaces with flags, but find it averse how many of these painted gewgaws are mass-produced overseas and sold in stores to appeal to those too lazy to do it oneself or without the time for same.
I know there are many artisans producing nice work and I would seek those out were I buying new ones to add to what I already own.
One year I dumped beach sand along my mantle and filled the space with glass floats, pebbles, shells, fireworks and pictures of my children playing at the beach. That was probably my most creative seasonal display and messy too though it mostly vacuumed right up. I might do it again but the cords for the video games tend to disrupt such delicate displays.
As I type this, the spousal unit is driving a bobcat back and forth to fill my lower pasture with extra dirt from whence to create jumps and banked turns so the boys can ride their quads and dirtbikes on a little track.
A family of swallows has taken up nesting on top of a floodlight under the front porch eave. I love their blue and orange color scheme and the fact that they eat bugs all day long. Detest the piles of turds but I'll deal. I built a barn ten years ago for them and while they use it occasionally it seems they prefer to make their own way. I admire that feature of barn swallows but most envy their jet-fighter-like maneuvers over roads and streams as they scoop up their meal.
There are five eggs in the nest. I could barely fit my cell phone camera in there to get a pic of the speckled "bird larva" but slipped my finger in to gently caress each egg and know there are indeed five of them. The parents don't seem to mind that we are so near though they check out while we bbq out there. I hope it doesn't doom the newborns to failure but again they DO have the barn....
Sunday Market's in full swing with both improvements and what I feel might be backsliding tactics. Still, I know what it's like for most of these vendors and feel better spending my money with them than the local big boxes.
I find myself buying things from multiple, smaller, locally-owned sources nowadays, bucking a trend that began when I was small: that of the one-stop shop.
Yes, it's easier and quicker, but I don't know that I will go quietly into the night of retail giants, especially when I realize the price might be my town's identity.
It might be a tough thing for me just because I know or am acquainted with so many small business owners and think about their livelihood and well-being. I want them to stay here and thrive here and so I will buy my canned tuna from local processors rather than off the shelf at Fred's or Safeway. My artisan bread will not come from the shelves of those stores either, instead from the fabulous Blue Scorcher.
No Starbuck's brew passes these lips, I only drink Thundermuck.
Gifts purchased for others will be for the most part of the locally-produced and American made variety. They mean more that way, and hopefully mean more to those that need the money most, will re-use it within my community.
Good luck everyone, enjoying your Summer activities. This territory really glows this time of year. Make the most of it...

Think before you buy

Read labels, ask questions and modify your spending. Seem tough?
No tougher than being "green" is it to buy locally and buy domestically-made and owned items.
Some things may seem impossible, but there are options for just about everything we need or want in this world.
I really don't want to see some of my favorite locally-owned and operated businesses go away and so I take a bit of extra time to patronize them. Think it takes extra fuel to do so?
Not always...many of our local businesses have online stores from which to purchase and even have the items delivered to you.
Rumors of another big-box store make me queasy, but I will not shop there. I have been in the Home Depot just a few times, and purchased nothing personally so far. I have no need to, and when/if I do, it will be out of sheer necessity and lack of option that I do.
We have plenty of options here and I will continue to shop with them as long as they exist.
My Easter candies will not be from Hersheys or Mars, they will be from local candy stores from local and domestic sources.
Times like these, we all need to tend the yards and gardens closest to home, to take care of our neighbors and the ones that take care of us.

Fourteen

and this just floated my lil' ol' boat:
Demolition Man!
Been lost in a little YouTube nostalgia since the afternoon is not conducive to my other desired pursuit of yard work. Yeah, like I really desired the yard work over sitting around watching videos...but I would like to get that done.

WMDs in my home

Yep, you read that right: Weapons of Mass Destruction are right here in the walls of my own little house.
My oldest son observed that, this morning, and it made me laugh when I thought about it.
I was referring to throwing out one of those self-inking rubber name/address stamps that I found lying on the counter after one of my cleaning rampages. Not sure where I'd shaken it out of before that, but the reason it has that reputation is this:

About two years ago, my husband ordered this item, with his name and my name and our address, phone number and a website. It was part of a pyramid scheme he'd fallen into, but that is irrelevant.
The future WMD was stored in a room we didn't use very much, a guest bedroom.
We have two boys, then 2 and 5. They became fond of playing in the guest bedroom after a visit from their grandparents where the grandparents stayed while they visited.
One day I went into the guest bedroom to look for something else and generally tidy up. Jumping on a bed really can trash the look of a room!
What did I find? Not just a wrinkled and mussed bed and pillows on the floor, but our name and address stamped on every conceivable surface.
It was a decorating disaster!!!
Our names and addresses were displayed prominently on the bedsheets, the walls, pictures that hung on the wall. I saw the ink on the curtains, a box of Kleenex, the countertops and drawer fronts.
The capper for me was the carpet. The ink was immovable. Luckily the carpet is dark green. You really have to look to see the stamp.
Yes, the name and address stamp earned its reputation that day. I put it high on a shelf in the kitchen inside a cupboard. Hubby knows where it is should he ever need to use it. We still get the shipments of "juice" from said pyramid scheme, and he occasionally even sells some of it to other people.
That stamp has never seen paper that I know of. It works real well on fabric, though. If we had pets inside, I'm sure we'd know how it transfers to furry surfaces.

Snow: Bah! Humbug!

Instead of the hackneyed "Let It Snow" comments and blog titles I've seen of late, I'd like to change the tone and put forth my plea of: "make it stop!"
I want a break from this, damnit!
Doesn't the snow make the pasture and barn look almost idyllic?
Probably would have been better had I put the cart away and not left it in front of the door, but it was COLD the night before!

Most years I'd love a bit of snow in the days preceding Christmas and of course the Eve of as well as the day itself, but this year it's just getting in the way of my overall tardiness in preparation for the holiday.
It didn't help that I was away for five days on the East coast. Since I am a "shop local" enthusiast, I could not justify doing much Christmas shopping there (I think I bought one jar of pumpkin butter at the Lancaster Kitchen Kettle Village), so you see my hands were tied!
Previous to that, we were awaiting our first settlement from the crab season to really get started on the shopping, so here we go...I am behind, and need a break in the weather to get it finished up. Not much, just a day or so, please?
I thought for sure that back in PA it would be snowy and cold, but it was more like 65 degrees although the freezing rain showed up the day I was to leave, giving me fits of flight delays. I made it home, though, to arrive to frozen water pipes and haven't seen the lawn in over two weeks (which really is ok).
The roads today were a sea of brown slush, the parking lots, too. Just gross. Stores are crowded, but luckily I have not and do not shop much in the stores like Freddy's or Costco, the worst offenders. They were my last resort for a few items, but I will do without if I cannot find them in smaller stores.

In looking all over the county for toboggans and sleds, we started in Costco (because we were nearest when we had the inspiration) and learned they would be getting a shipment of them in. We left, to look first at our local stores...Purple Cow, Ace, Builder's Supply, etc. etc. and lo and behold, the last place we looked, Utzinger's Hardware had scores of them! We purchased about five and took 'em home and used 'em well.

I felt sorry for the "lucky" ones who got part of the shipment at Costco; those styrofoam things should last about two hours. Our Utzinger's-purchased toboggans were even made in the USA.

Well, I'm off to sleep, to see what tomorrow allows for finishing my holiday preparations.

Look at how much the family loves making snowmen...even my yearling, Pyro, got into the spirit (it really was the peppermint eyes and parsnip nose that held his interest in the long run, but Pyro LOVES people and all they do, even though he fails to understand the purpose of the activity).

Anyway, shoo, snow, shoo!

Perspective

Looking at the live camera on top of the Columbia River Maritime Museum from my parent's house in West Chester, PA. I can see snow on the rooftops and can hardly believe it.
We rarely get snow this time of year...here I am looking at the cold, wet miserable weather and it is cold here, too, but bright and sunny.
I feel odd about everything in between myself and home. It's been 16 years since I have been here, and though I've flown and been a few places since then, it feels both sad and liberating to be this far away.
I would love to travel more, but mostly by car, I think. Unencumbered, and with all that implies.
Monday will see my father graduating with his Master's Degree in Physical Science (the reason we are here), and Wednesday we will be winging it home.
I hope that all of you are well and your holiday preparations are going swimmingly.

Interesting article

on our year-ago storm:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news/1228109205174760.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

What a week that was!
It's interesting to read the post-mortem, and see the damage that still persists. The little boys won't remember much of it, though Colton (our youngest) is still rather traumatized at each new loss of power and resulting dark the symptom of a generator dependent on fuel that would run out of gas now and then when we (the adults) were not paying attention, and putting the house back into pitch blackness for a few moments during that week we lived on nothing but its power. The smell of the exhaust was everywhere. I can't imagine what we would have done without it. Thankful for the Olney Store that sold gas and diesel for our genny and truck.

Still, let's hope we don't see another like it. Ever! For three days the wind blew, and sucked! Hahah.
For 7 days we lived without power, alternating dependent appliances to the little Honda to make sure we nurtured their wards through the outage. Mostly the freezer (a hundred lb. of frozen Alaskan Halibut among other things can't be left to go bad), refrigerator (so that we could have water and keep our food), computer w/satellite modem (for communicating outside the county) and tv (for something to do on long nights) and occasionally the coffee maker, although that one coffee maker strained the generator to the maximum of its capacity.

Fires and Flowers

Link to video of Roger performing in Shanghaied in Astoria's Olio Act
As so many of you must already know, we lost our friend Roger Martin on Thanksgiving night in a fire that also burned most of a block. We will not soon forget this loss, and certainly every time I attend an Astor Street Opry Company production or event, his memory will be near. Roger was a troubled man, to be sure, but why dwell on that at this point. He also gave a lot to the show he was in, and in turn to the community. The video above shows his game attitude, and his portrayal of Capt. Jack was always my favorite. As I drove past the florist where he was living/had lived and died, I noticed the stack of flowers and notes. I will add to them. I don't know that it helps in any way to do so, as in flowers for the dead, but I also want to send a message to those of us here dealing with his loss that I remember, and I remember the good things about him. I hope somewhere he can feel that. I have forgiven him for saying I'd make a good Miss Vivian. ;) Love to you, Roger, and godspeed.

Autumn moves on

and Fall is here, treading eagerly on the heels of Winter...or is that the other way around?
Either way, it's a long, dark, wet haul from here on 'til about June, maybe July.
Seriously, though, I hope for a few breaks in the weather between now and then.
I can hardly believe the week of Halloween is past with its scorched-pumpkin smells, the chill of fear a tingly, giddy bit of excitement amidst the sweet and sugary treats.
So next come the big family holidays, the long dark nights and...and...mud!
Yep. I fell down in the pasture twice, last night. Our pastures are all sloped and so with the clay-based soil they turn to the consistency of grease with just a little moisture.
I'm sure I've bitched complained about this in the past, probably even here.
The second time I fell down, I had a half-full bucket of soaked beet pulp in one hand and of course that was what cushioned my chin when I hit the ground. Uggh.
My little old mare (32 going on 33) is off her feed and seeming...well...just faded. I am worried for her. She seems healthy enough and drinking water, even showing interest in some food now and then.
My Dad's getting his Master's in December and I'll fly to West Chester to see that. Been 16 years since I've been there.
This is going to be short because the short ones need to get into bed.
We've got a new president and much of the "change" is still in OUR hands.
Happy November, Clatsop County!

Patriotic School Shopping

I finished the school shopping for my two boys the other day.
I managed about 98% Made in North America, too.
I was unable to easily find folders/pee chees and sketch books made here in the USA, but those were made in Canada, and I find that acceptable.
We had to buy an alternate brand of glue from the typical Elmer's, because good ol' Elmer's is made in China. The other brand was less expensive and also made in USA.
The only failure we had was the glue sticks. I didn't go back to change them out, but read the back (my oldest son picked these up) and these ended up being made in China.
All the Crayolas were made in USA, at least the crayons themselves. The watercolors were made in China, so I chose the "off" brand at a slightly higher price.
I'm pretty proud of that and hope that we can continue with clothing, although I have little control over what their grandparents buy for them.
Even if there aren't any school supplies that I know of made here in Astoria/Oregon, I can still buy American.

O, Summer where art thou?

I wish you hadn't left so early!
It's really messing with my head this time around, and it's not even September, yet.
This weather.
I was hoping we'd have a stretch of nice weather to make up for the non-event our Summer was.
'Nuff bout that. I have been organizing my great piles of clutter. Much of it isn't mine at all, being the domain of little boys and grown ones.
The latters' possessions I am moving aside to make way for my own organization.
I would say that there is a considerable amount of it that 'belongs' to me, though, and some of it's been taken away to other places, a little's been tossed or burned, and stuff's up for sale.
For some reason I can't seem to give away my old saddle. Granted, it was inexpensive to begin with, but it has a nice Cashel cushion. I suppose some 4H-er or someone might show an interest if I did put it on Freecycle.
Space is at a premium, though, and the clutter is torturous to me as much as the weather is only it seems a hazardous juxtaposition to it when the indoor spaces we flock to in order to hide from the wet and cold are so cramped and impossible to keep clean with piles of things here and there and it only seems to get worse.
I've been neglecting my blogging for the most part, but it's been for good reasons.
I hope the Expo next weekend is fun. I wish this weekend would dry out! Last year, the weekend following Labor Day was hot indeed.
Happy Labor Day, y'all, stay dry!

Commercial Fishing Expo and Hotdog Highliners Competition in Astoria, OR

Astoria, Oregon is hosting an entertaining, informational display of "Deadliest Catch" type skill on Sept. 7, 2008 at Astoria's Sunday Market Sept. 7, 2008.NW Limited...History in Vogue will be there selling Dead Reckoning of the Pacific Graveyard lithographs for $50 each or $500 for the full "Cadillac" version with all the photos, framed and documented.

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Shooting stars (make a wish)

Many opportunities, last night, to make wishes on falling stars.
Last night we sat out on the front porch to watch the Perseid shower since it was clear out and we were close to the peak rate for these meteors.
The little boys were awake and excited to be there, and got out their little glow-necklaces they'd bought at the Regatta fireworks last Saturday (we put them in the freezer to conserve them), which luckily didn't cause enough light interference to make a big difference.
That big ol' waxing gibbous moon did some work on washing out the sky as did the neighbor's mercury vapor yard light. Still, we saw several per minute at times.
Many were the long, faint blue streaks that leave you wondering if you really did see anything at all. Others were larger and almost audible.
We watched for about an hour and a half before we all got too cold.
I wished we could have gone to a more remote location (that's funny considering we live 12 miles outside of town already) away from the lights of the neighbor and our own.
I've fantasized about watching them either from Neahkahnie mountain or out on the water maybe in the river, lying flat and looking up from the deck of a boat.
Over the years, we've had some good nights. Our "stargazing hill" was sold and now has a family living there above their new stable, so we no longer have that nearby. One year we saw several meteors with persistent trains and even some large fireballs.
Some years we've been "clouded out" and had to come home and listen to them on forward-scatter radar via the internet.
Even when there are no meters, there's nothing like the view of the night sky with no light pollution.
Last night was still great. We pointed out a few constellations (bonus to having a father with a degree in astronomy and a deep love for it), stars, saw several satellites, and best of all, nobody was scared of the dark.
A simple, good time was had.
Sorry, no pictures...

Nine Inch Nails in Seattle

WOW, it was great! Not as great as Ridgefield two years ago, at least energy-wise, but still great.
Loved the visuals, the lighting effects and the sound was mesmerizing.



Not much a fan of the opening act, Crystal Castles, but the music part of that was pretty good.

Anyone else from the 'sop go to this?

HMS Bounty stops in Astoria, OR

The historic tall ship Bounty is just passing through on her way to San Francisco. Astoria is no stranger to movie stars!

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Well, duh...

Robert Kennedy, Jr. says LNG Bad for NW (article)

Oh, say can you see?

Independence day approaches!
We really enjoy making ribs to take to the beach with us...we always go to Long Beach and set up our screen tent at Bolstad approach for the entire day.
It is entertaining to watch the people in their seriously ON road vehicles tackle the approach. Dubs don't necessarily make good beach cruising.
There was the one year when our neighbor came over to slap my sister (she deserved it) and the men then got into it. Can you say Jerry Springer?
The firework display over there is spectacular though the private displays rival that, there is never a dull moment.
One big birthday party!
I'm just bummed that we didn't pick up any of these over in Chinook, today:





What better to go with a national holiday? I got a great chuckle out of a shopper at the stand reading this off his "list" as he walked past!
How can you not love a nice rack?
Wanna see it in action?
Pyro King Nice Rack

Saturday is Columbia River Coffee Roaster's Grand Opening...yep, it bodes well for a great weekend.

Stay safe!

A teeny bouquet of wildflowers

Makes me think of a piece of a William Blake poem (from Auguries of Innocence):
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

We were out at the Hammond marina viewpoint, today, watching the USCG Eagle depart.
The boys (and dog) played in the biting wind, and (once done taking photographs of the tall ship on the way out of the river) I plucked the tiniest bouquet with my numbed fingers.
I don't know what any of the three are technically named (my grandmother loved the "homespun" names for flowers, as opposed to the real ones), but they made a sweet, little arrangement.
If only for a moment, for they wilted rather swiftly once they were on the dash of the truck.
Glad I snapped a pic.